I have always worked very closely with my academic colleagues, on whichever programme, or sets of programmes, that I have worked on. The change in team set me thinking about the qualities that are necessary for support staff within Universities.

There are some who will have you believe that the role of an administrator in HE is mainly data entry, with little responsibility and decision making. I have to say that this, in my experience, is not the case. In order to be an effective administrator, you need to have excellent attention to detail – it is likely to be you who picks up on little things that your academic colleagues may miss. You need to know your programme(s). I have learnt over the years that having intimate knowledge of the workings and nuances of the programmes you work on is vital. Each programme, or group of programmes, will have its own little differences – you may have a flexible part time programme. You may have a post graduate programme that operates strangely out of sync with under graduate programmes. Each student on the programmes will have their own set of circumstances that may effect them in assessments, and considerations will need to be made at assessment board time. It is often you, the administrator, who has some of this specialist knowledge. There are times when you will be the point of contact for a troubled student. I have managed to retain students on a programme in the past when they were on the verge of withdrawing, but was able to advise and suggest a suspension of studies as an alternative. This kind of ability is invaluable to a university and to a programme team (especially when numbers can make or break a programme!).

I have always felt that a programme needs a dedicated administrator – and the last two weeks have confirmed this for me. A collaborative programme is likely to have differences that a home programme does not. You are often working within more than one set of regulations – your institution, and the partner institution. These programmes can not be managed by multiple people. They need to have a single person who can truly get to grips with the nuances.

I’m hoping that support staff reading this blog post are nodding sagely at what I say. We are the foundation of the success of our institutions. If you are the type of person who does have attention to detail; who notices the little things; who works well to a structure that has deadlines, regulations and application, you will make an excellent HE administrator.

There are many departments in Universities that support the work of our academic colleagues. HE Institutions are big employers, and the roles that support the teaching and learning are vital. As administrators at Faculty or School level, we support the core business. We ensure the smooth running of the academic calendar. We support our students, and are often the face of the university we work at. Students will come to administrative staff for a large number of queries, and the advice and support that we are able to offer assists our students through their career with us.

Without the administrative staff, assessment boards would not take place. We work tirelessly to ensure that all student assessment is recorded accurately and the assessment boards run smoothly. In another part of my current role, the administrative staff ensure that timetables are constructed without clashes, to suit both students and academics alike. No mean feat when there are multiple modules on multiple programmes across multiple schools in one faculty. But it all comes together, thanks to the expertise of the staff working in that area. These are the areas with which I have direct experience and knowledge.

There are opportunities for development of staff in Higher Education. Where else would you get the opportunity to learn and to gain qualifications? This is something that Universities can uniquely offer to their staff. You can develop from within. I myself have been given the opportunity to explore the world of academia and teaching – and to discover that this is something I love and want to move into.

All support staff within Universities need to take pride in the vital role that they play in the running of a University. It is a good career, one with many opportunities. But you have to work for those opportunities, and if you seek them, they are there for those who want them – you just need to reach out and take them.

I have certainly seen it happen, and I understand the skepticism.  I have had every possible range of experience working with consultants, from the very good to the very bad to the simply mediocre and useless.

Why use consultants?

A recent (September 2010) CASE article by Andrea Jarrell called “Help Wanted: Making the most of consultant expertise” identifies the following factors to help universities (or any organisation, really) identify when they might need a consultant:

Four factors generally cause institutions to seek outside expertise: scope, know-how, objectivity, and politics.  The first two are fairly obvious: Is the job simply too big for campus professionals to handle in addition to their regular responsibilities? Is the expertise required to accomplish your goals lacking on campus? If the answer is yes to one or both of these questions, you need help from a consultant. Even if you have the time and expertise on campus to handle the proposed project, you may need the objectivity of outside counsel to ensure success.

I recently helped co-ordinate the work of a branding agency to help Wales’ newest university re-name and re-brand, and despite expected complaints from some at how much was spent developing a “logo,” I know first-hand how much work was involved from the research and benchmarking stages through to the advocacy and lobbying and internal communications and then the part that everyone sees – the brand identity.  It didn’t go perfectly, and everyone learned from the process, which is to be expected.  But I also know for a fact there is absolutely no way either I or my team or even a working group of academic and administrative professionals could have achieved the necessary output without professional assistance, for all the reasons listed in the article above.

Working expectations – beyond the “brief”

And now I’ve moved from briefing and coordinating the work of consultants to being one myself. Reflecting on my experience, I think the key to a successful working relationship is to spent the time at the outset agreeing the terms of the arrangement.  And by this I don’t simply mean the contract and what constitutes breaches, setting deadlines, etc.  But rather a very frank discussion about working styles and expectations. As one of my favourite teachers used to say, “you can’t staple your head to the paper.”  Meaning, it may all be “up there” but if you don’t spell it out, how can anyone possibly know what you mean?

So talk about preferences – email vs. phone vs. chat; experience managing these types of projects (on the client side) – do they need help and guidance?; pros and cons of being fully involved in each stage of the project; time commitments and availability; learning/thinking/feedback styles – do you go with your gut or do you like to digest and think about it first? And so on…this can take place before the contract is awarded even, so that both parties clearly understand what they’re getting into.

I find it strange that so much time is spent hiring permanent or even contract staff in terms of the application process and interviews, trying to figure out if the person is the right “fit” for the organisation, but the same types of consideration aren’t part of the equation in hiring a consultant.  It’s understandable, but I think both the client and the consultant would benefit from similar discussions so that the decision isn’t simply based on previous experience/recommendations or cost/benefit but rather on the interpersonal relationship the partnership brings to the team.

The (near) future of consulting

It’s a tough time to try to work with universities – with massive budget cuts, it’s hard to imagine that financial resources will be made available for consultancy-based projects. However, with the increasing competitiveness and need to source and develop additional revenue streams, given the above criteria, hiring consultants and interim managers is a logical stop-gap measure when longer-term funding is unknown. The options are endless too – it’s no longer just a matter of having someone come in and do a bit of research and leave you with a 100+ page report for you to read and implement (although if that’s all you’re after…!) but rather consultants can be used in house where staffing gaps might exist or to implement particular projects or to train staff on new ways of working – or all of the above!

The right partner can be worth their weight in gold if used effectively, particularly if flexible and as committed to the success of your organisation as you are. In this way, you are not chained to them if it’s not working, but if it is – the link is solid, and they don’t just walk away at the end of the project with no concern for the effectiveness of the implementation of their recommendations and ideas.

In my experience, however, a degree is very helpful to working in HE, for several reasons.

1) It shows you have an interest in, and an aptitude for, the central service/product on offer by the university or college you are applying to – education is at the core of their business and their values, and you would be best placed if you can demonstrate the role it has had in your life as well.

2) Higher education is an increasingly complex and dynamic industry, and advanced studies lend themselves to the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are valued in that kind of environment.  Having a degree doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be a flexible, adaptable, pro-active employee, but it may show that you have a pre-disposition towards this.

3) Working with others who have advanced degrees and/or who are at the top of their field – you won’t automatically be able to get the respect you deserve from a fellow staff member just because you’ve got some letters behind your name, but when you’re working in a place that places a great deal of importance on teaching and research, you may find it easier if you know your quantitative from qualitative evidence, and are able to demonstrate this tangibly not only from your professional working history, but also from having taken appropriate courses at some stage in your career.

All of this will of course depend to a certain extent the role that you have as well as your relationship with your peers and of course the institutional culture where you work.  But in my experience, you will likely find it easier to get settled in a new role if you have had some prior experience of university-level study and how a university organizes itself.  And certainly as a hiring manager, with all else being equal, I would certainly prioritise an applicant or a candidate for promotion who showed a continuing interest in their own personal and/or professional education, and would certainly encourage him or her to take courses at the institution.

Another option to consider is joining professional networks and memberships.  Most professionals working in higher education (on either the academic or administrative side) hold multiple memberships of relevant professional organisations, which are also selective and often also require studies at an appropriate level in order to gain membership.

There may be a “degree” of academic snobbery at work here, in that members of the academy expect that others in the organisation should have achieved a similar standard of education. But when you think about it in terms of an institution’s brand values and mission in society, what does it say if they conclude a degree isn’t important to success?

What are the differences?

Given that public spending has seen significant cuts this year and that universities are already feeling the pressure, there is a considerable shift in recruitment from purely administrative and operational roles to income-generating roles. Anything to do with alumni and development, research and services commercialization, business partnerships – in other words, anything with potential to bring in additional income in the near future – is on the rise. This is not to say that admin roles are not on offer anymore, but the current trend is to try and squeeze an administrator’s role into a broader, preferably income-generating, role. The reason is quite obvious: lower costs for the institution with the potential for some much needed extra cash.

What does this say about the industry?

In my opinion, higher education institutions are doing the same as private and other public organizations in their efforts to cope with the financial crisis and the consequent reductions in cash flow. The way I see things, the education industry is more successful than other industries in that they are generally trying to avoid mass redundancies and are cutting costs in a reasonable manner. At the end of the day, thinking about the shifts in recruitment patterns, the UK higher education industry seems to be showing flexibility, and quick adaptability to environmental changes. Instead of freezing new hires all together, as we have seen elsewhere, it is instead moving its focus towards roles that are thought to satisfy current financial needs. If nothing else, universities in the UK are challenging the assumption that public sector organizations are inflexible and slow to change.